The Help (film)

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Movie
German title The Help
Original title The Help
The Help Logo.svg
Country of production United States
original language English
Publishing year 2011
length 146 minutes
Age rating FSK 0
JMK 6
Rod
Director Tate Taylor
script Tate Taylor
production Michael Barnathan
Chris Columbus
Brunson Green
music Thomas Newman
camera Stephen Goldblatt
cut Hughes Winborne
occupation

The Help is a feature film by the US-American director Tate Taylor from 2011. The drama is based on the novel Gute Geister (original title: The Help ) by Kathryn Stockett and is about the young, white "Eugenia 'Skeeter' Phelan", and her relationship with two African American domestic workers during the US civil rights movement of the early 1960s . In the lead roles of the film in the southern city of Jackson ( Mississippi ) plays include Emma Stone , Viola Davis , Octavia Spencer , Bryce Dallas Howard and Jessica Chastain to see.

action

Jackson (Mississippi) , early 1960s: When the young Skeeter returned to her hometown after graduating from the University of Mississippi , she dreams of becoming a writer. So she decides - driven by her keen sense of justice and against all convention - the decision to write a controversial book from the point of view of the housemaids, which is why she begins to interview African American women who have looked after the children of the white upper class all their lives as housemaids to have.

But Skeeter is not only violating good manners, but also the law, which puts herself and everyone who supports her secret project in danger, especially the kind-hearted Aibileen, who Skeeter can win over first for her project, and resolute Minny, who causes a sensation with her cheeky mouth and her unique chocolate cake. Skeeter's childhood friendships are put to the test, and the black community is initially skeptical of the project. But after a momentous incident, more and more housemaids are ready to tell Skeeter their tragic to funny life stories.

The book eventually gets published and is a huge hit - much to the delight of Skeeters and the maids. Skeeter shares her fame with everyone who has contributed to the success with her stories and is offered a job at a publishing house in New York.

synchronization

The film was set to music at FFS Film- und Fernseh-Synchron in Berlin . Marianne Groß wrote the dialogue book and directed the dialogue.

role actor Voice actor
Eugenia "Skeeter" Phelan Emma Stone Anja Stadlober
Aibileen Clark Viola Davis Sandra Schwittau
Hilly Holbrook Bryce Dallas Howard Manja Doering
Minny Jackson Octavia Spencer Martina Treger
Celia Foote Jessica Chastain Nana Spier
Charlotte Phelan Allison Janney Karin Buchholz
Robert Phelan Brian Kerwin Frank-Otto Schenk
Mrs. Walters Sissy Spacek Susanna Bonaséwicz
Stuart Whitworth Chris Lowell Sebastian Schulz
Johnny Foote Mike Vogel Alexander Doering
Yule Mae Davis Aunjanue Ellis Cathrin Vaessen
Constantine Bates Cicely Tyson Almut Eggert
Jolene French Anna Camp Sarah Riedel
Elain Stein Mary Steenburgen Cornelia Meinhardt
Elizabeth Leefolt Ahna O'Reilly Berenice Weichert

Reviews

“As a candy-colored feel-good movie, The Help lives from its actresses (great: Octavia Spencer as Minny) and colorful details: the multi-faceted southern dialect with its elongated vowels, the sixties hairstyles, printed silk clothes and everyday observations at home. Here works The Help as a nostalgic mix of the women , To Kill a Mockingbird , Mad Men and Green Tomatoes . Despite the two and a half hours running time, the film develops a considerable narrative pull, which is not least due to director Taylor's skillful use of melodramatic genre conventions: the dividing line between good and bad is clearly drawn, and even the cheapest punchlines are well placed. […] As a film about racism and the invisible privileges of being white, The Help wastes its potential. [...] The characters of Aibileen and Minny remain morally sincere, but one-dimensional cliché figures that function as passive key words. They are catalysts for the transformation of the dazzling white main characters, who Taylor is really interested in. "

- Tobias Nagl : Spiegel Online

“[...] In fact, Emma Stone turns out to be one of the most talented actresses of her generation, who is convincing even in the serious profession and deserves a nomination. However, what passes for auteur cinema in the USA sometimes seems a bit too naive to us Europeans. So here, too, the story is too clichéd at one point or another. In addition, there is often a lack of gray tones, there are good and bad characters - and when characterizing them, the mallet was unpacked. In any case, subtle subtlety is not the film's strong point. Which unfortunately means that The Help leaves its viewers untouched for long stretches. [...] Well-intentioned film about a dark chapter in American society. "

- Cinema

“[…] But it is not a second Mississippi Burning (director: Alan Parker, 1988), which is about the investigation of the cold-blooded murder of three black civil rights activists in 1964. The Help is more of a catfight than a story of horror, more melancholy than enlightenment, more gloss than sadness. Where are the miserable huts, the slums, the third world in the midst of the American economic boom and prosperity? You have to blame the film for a bit of a lack of authenticity. It would have done the film good to condense the plot more and let the outer facade crumble a little more apart. The Help is a classic Hollywood product in which good triumphs over evil and the plot is very predictable. And yet Tate Taylor has developed a great deal of empathy for his characters that carries over to the audience. One hopes for the best for them and suffers with them from the first minute. For some one wishes for hell, for others heaven. In the end you can't get much smarter than that. "

- Katrin Knauth : kino-zeit.de

“ The Help is quite conventional, well-engineered narrative cinema, which is supported by outstanding acting and a soulful soundtrack, but is primarily characterized by an atmospheric production design. The palatial villas of the white employers stand in the greatest possible contrast to the drab dwellings of the Afro-American population. For a long time, the equipment film indulges in the splendor of colors of the southern states, as we know it from many films. [...] Over two and a half hours, the massive panorama of an era unfolds, the conflicts of which are still felt today. "

- Philipp Bühler : kinofenster.de

Awards

The German Film and Media Assessment FBW in Wiesbaden awarded the film the rating particularly valuable.

Differences from the novel

novel Movie
Minny Jackson becomes unemployed because she doesn't want to work for Hilly Minny Jackson is fired for intending to use the indoor toilet
Constantine's daughter is called Lula Bell, she is white Constantine's daughter is called Rachel, she is colored
Johnny Foote runs into Minny working at home, both of whom keep this encounter from Celia Celia confesses to her husband that she has hired a maid
At the end of the novel, Aibileen works as a writer for the newspaper and writes a household column In the film, Aibileen is unemployed at the end, she suggests that she wants to continue writing

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Certificate of Release for The Help . Voluntary self-regulation of the film industry , September 2011 (PDF; test number: 129 448 K).
  2. ↑ Age rating for The Help . Youth Media Commission .
  3. ↑ German synchronous index: German synchronous index | Movies | The Help. Retrieved April 2, 2018 .
  4. ↑ Tobias Nagl: Colorful candy and yet black and white. In: Spiegel Online . Der Spiegel , December 7, 2011, accessed December 7, 2011 .
  5. ↑ http://www.cinema.de/film/the-help,4666418.html
  6. ↑ The Help - African American Maids Unpacking , accessed July 26, 2017.
  7. ^ Philipp Bühler: The Help - Film of the Month December 2011. In: kinofenster.de. Federal Agency for Civic Education and Vision Cinema , November 11, 2011, accessed on December 20, 2011 .